Sociology 319: Social Stratification
Spring 2004
Dr Scott Schaffer

Class Meetings: T/Th 11am to 1215pm, Hash 210
Office Hours: MTWTh 1230pm to 2pm, Susquehanna House 105
Phone: 717/872.3567
Fax: 717/872.3942
email: scott.schaffer@millersville.edu

Course web site: http://www.millersville.edu/~schaffer/courses/s2004/soc319


Caveat: You should note that this course is not designed to be a lecture course. My teaching philosophy, described in fuller detail below, is one that asks you to meet me halfway – to come to class having read the material thoroughly (not just turning the pages, but having thought about the materials), developed ideas and questions about the readings, and being ready to discuss these materials at more than a surface level. If you do that, I will provide you with everything you will need to succeed in the course. But if you are looking for a course that is just lecture-based, this is not the course for you.


Course Description:

This course is intended to provide an in-depth introduction to the field of sociology known as “social stratification” – the study of the ways in which societies are divided into (and divide themselves) into different subgroups; how these subgroups are allocated (and allocate themselves) different versions and amounts of resources and power; how social status is naturalized and made to seem as if it is purely the result of individual volition; and the impact of these kinds of social processes on how social life is carried out. In other words, a fundamental tenet of this course is that social structures and our place within them dictate to a large extent the possibility for our individual action in the world. In addition, you will be exposed to the study of how the global society is stratified – how resources, power, etc., are allocated among different societies and subgroups within those societies.

This course will be a difficult one for most of us. We are used to the naturalization of our class status. Class discourse is not prevalent in the US (how many of us who grew up in poverty consider ourselves “middle class”?), and because economic status is flattened out on the basis of the way in which we organize our urban life, we rarely recognize our true class position. Race and gender also affect our everyday interactions, our possibilities for interpersonal relationships, and our potential for social and economic advancement, and will also be emphasized in this course. In all, the key question of this course is: To what extent does our position in the national and global social structures affect the way we live, the ways we can conceive of living, and our individual agency?

After examining theories regarding the nature and genesis of stratification within the US, we will look at the ways in which American society stratifies and hierarchizes us along the lines of class, race/ethnicity, and gender. In particular, we will look at the ways in which those positions and their intersections create different life chances for different groups and subgroups within the US. We will also critically examine the usual counterargument to this sociological critique – namely that if people just “worked harder,” then there would be more “equality.” After doing this, we will devote a significant part of the course to looking at the notions of globalization and development, and in particular will examine the ways in which “Western” modes of economic and social organization are impacting on women around the world, as well as how their actions to resist development and globalization can teach us how to address problems within our own society.

In addition to the mind-bending aspect of this course, this course will also be a fair deal of work. Your attendance in class for every lecture is expected, and it is also expected that you will have done the readings for each lecture in advance of the lecture. As well, your active participation in class is hoped for and expected. The course will move back and forth between a lecture and a seminar format, and your participation in each format is absolutely critical to the success of the course. My job is to provide you with the spoon – the tools you need for dealing with these issues, ideas, and theories; it’s not to feed you with that spoon.

 

Course Readings:

The following books are required readings, and can be purchased at the campus bookstore, or online at Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, or another reputable online bookseller. Please make sure that you purchase them in order, and get the most current edition, which is listed below.

Shapiro (ed.), Great Divides: Readings in Social Inequality in the United States, 2001. (Abbreviated GD.)
Arrow, Bowles, and Durlauf (eds.), Meritocracy and Economic Inequality, 2000. (Abbreviated MEI.)
Seligson and Passe-Smith (eds.), Development and Underdevelopment: The Political Economy of Global Inequality, 2003. (Abbreviated D&U.)
Visvanathan, Duggan, Nisonoff, and Wiegersma (eds.), The Women, Gender, and Development Reader, 1997. (Abbreviated WGDR.)

Optional but Highly Recommended Texts:

McCall, Complex Inequality: Gender, Class and Race in the New Economy, 2001. (Abbreviated CI.)
Anderson, Cavanagh, Lee and Ehrenreich, Field Guide to the Global Economy, 2000. (Abbreviated FGGE.)

There will also be some required journal articles available on the course web site for your review at the appropriate point in the course.

 

Course Assignments:

There will be six types of assignments in this course. You must complete all assignments in a timely manner in order to pass the course.

BlackBoard Discussion: Starting in the second week of the course, you will participate in online discussions with your classmates through the Blackboard system. This system will enable you to post discussion questions and responses to others’ questions and responses at any time. You are required each week to post one discussion question and two responses to others’ questions or responses to posted questions. You are also strongly encouraged to respond to the responses your question gets – after all, it is discussion. Your discussion questions must be posted prior to the Thurs class session in each week; your responses to others’ questions must be posted during the rest of the week. The questions that are posted will be used as the basis for discussion in Thurs class sessions. Each question you post will receive either an “A” or “F”: if it produced a discussion germane to the course issues, it receives an A; if it didn’t… Likewise, each response you make to another’s question or response should be germane and utilize course readings (with citations, if possible); if it is, it will receive an A…

Examinations. There will be two examinations in this course – a midterm exam in week seven, and a final exam during the last class session. These exams will be essay-based, and review questions will be provided to you two weeks in advance.

Research Project and Presentation. This project will ask you to pursue independent research on a particular type of stratification and instance of that stratification. The project, which will be distributed in week six, will involve significant amounts of work on your part. You will also be asked to give a short presentation on your research during the scheduled final examination session.

Pop Quizzes. There will be three pop quizzes during the semester. These are designed to ensure that you are prepared for class, keeping up with the reading, and thinking about the materials. Often, they will appear after a class session in which there is not a lot of discussion or questioning; coming to class prepared and ready to discuss the materials can stave off these quizzes, perhaps even indefinitely.

Course Participation: As always, your participation in this course is crucial to your success here. I take “participation” as anything that indicates your desire to succeed in the course. On some days, that may be simply showing up to class, taking notes, and asking questions; on other days, that might involve leading discussion on the readings assigned for that day. It can also involve posing questions in class, during office hours, or via email – in other words, all of the things you’re supposed to be doing anyway. My teaching philosophy is such that the success and enjoyment of this course is incumbent on you doing your “job” – coming to class having read the assigned materials, thinking about the readings, and preparing germane and interesting things to say during discussions and questions you have on the materials. If you are unwilling to do that, you will want to find another course to take.

 

Grade Breakdown:

Please note that I do not grade on a “points” basis; all grades for this course will be letter grades with +/- modifiers, and will be converted into GPA equivalents and weighted for the purposes of figuring out your final grade in the course.

Midterm Examination: 10%
Research Project: 35%
Research Presentation: 5%
Pop Quizzes: 5%
BlackBoard Discussion: 10%
Final Examination: 15%
Course Participation: 20%

 

Course Policies:

Attendance and Preparation: Your attendance in each class session is mandatory – you cannot expect to do well in this course, or any other university course, without being in class. While there are no “points” given for attendance, your grade will be significantly better if you are in class, having read and thought about the material assigned for that day, and are ready to discuss that material. If you are unable to attend on a particular day, please let me know via email before the class begins, especially when something is due. No makeup exams or pop quizzes will be given in any case, and no late work will be accepted unless I am informed in advance and evidence can be provided.

Timeliness: As you know, the tempo of the semester system does not allow one to fall behind, and everything in this course builds to the final research paper. As such, you are requested and required to submit all assignments on the time and date announced. Except in the case of a severe, catastrophic, and well-documented misfortune that befalls you (such as your departure from this mortal coil), no late papers will be accepted; in the event of a catastrophe, you must contact me by phone or e-mail as early as possible. Papers must be submitted to the instructor in person at the time and date due, to the Sociology Department office prior to the deadline, or by e-mail to me before the deadline.

Presentation: The research papers you will undertake in this course represent a significant portion of your time this quarter and are intended to get you to think about the nature of the society in which you find yourselves. The expectation is that you will pursue these assignments with vigor and a clear intent to do well in the development of your analytic and critical thinking skills. As such, you are required to proofread and spell- and grammar-check all work submitted during this course. There is no excuse for submitting shoddy work in a time when any decent word processing program can polish your work. Any paper submitted with copious errors will automatically lose two full letter grades (with no appeal), and may be returned for editing. If a second paper is submitted without being proofread, that paper – and any future unproofed paper – will automatically receive a zero (0).

Academic Dishonesty: Absolutely NO form of academic dishonesty (defined as the use of prohibited materials during an examination, any kind of communication with another person other than the professor or an exam proctor during an examination, the representation of another’s work as your own whether that work was purchased or freely offered) will be tolerated in this course. As it is contrary to both the mission of the university and to MU policies, any act of academic dishonesty will be met with an immediate failure on the assignment at minimum, and failure in the course and referral to Student Affairs for judicial board proceedings at most. Just don’t even think about it – it robs us all of the learning experience.

Grading: I do my best to ensure that my evaluation of your work is as impartial as possible and reflects the quality of what you submit at the due date and time. If you have issues with my evaluation of your work, you may submit a one-page statement of how it is you think I misunderstood what you presented in your work (and only what appears in the work submitted) no sooner than 24 hours after I return the work to you. We will then meet to discuss the issue. Please note that I reserve the right to elevate your grade, maintain the grade applied, or to lower the grade depending on that re-evaluation.

Other Issues: My teaching philosophy is such that I see you as being primarily responsible for your success in the course. I do not teach in a “spoon-feeding” manner; my job is to provide you with the tools to enable your own education, and I will do that to the best of my abilities during the semester. Should you not wish to take a course that requires that you commit yourself to doing your best by your own motivation, it would be best for you to find another course. I also work to respond to issues that come up in class, either during the semester or on a daily basis. To that end, I reserve the right to change, adapt, or amend this syllabus, the reading schedule, and other policy issues at any time in order to make possible the improvement of the course; however, I will only do so with the consent of and input from the class as a whole. Finally, any issues that you feel are impacting on your ability to do well in the course, whether they are issues inside or outside the classroom, should be brought to me as soon as possible. I take what goes on in this course very seriously and personally; I hope you will as well.

Labor Dispute: In the event of a work stoppage resulting from the APSCUF/State System of Higher Education contract negotiations, you must continue preparing the materials as assigned in this syllabus, as we would all be unaware of how the semester calendar would change. However, if there is a work stoppage, no work submitted to anyone other than Dr Scott Schaffer will receive credit for this course. Any outstanding assignments should be held until the completion of the work stoppage, and no student will receive academic penalty in this course for electing to respect faculty picket lines.

 

Lecture and Reading Schedule:

Please note that you are expected to have completed the readings listed for each class session on the day they are listed. While my lectures will touch on issues raised in the readings, you should not presume that they are a substitute for actually doing the readings or vice versa. Please ensure you have read and thought about the readings prior to each class session, and come prepared with something to say about them. You should, at the very least, be ready to discuss these five things:

·       What the readings were about (in other words, a brief summary)
·       Responses to appropriate discussion questions
·       One interesting thing about each of the readings
·       One question you had about the readings
·       One thing that made you angry, changed your mind about something, or made you rethink something you thought you knew.


Week 1 – Introduction to the Course

T Jan 13: Introduction to the Course – Mechanics
Th Jan 15: Introduction to the Course – Themes and Issues; read GD, Part I (pp. 1-29); MEI, Part I (pp. 5-32)

Weeks 2-3 – Theories of Social Stratification

T Jan 20: Class, Status and Party – GD, pp. 32-48 (recommended: CI, chapter 1)
Th Jan 22: Patriarchy, Ethnicity, the Power Elite, and Segregation – GD, pp. 49-66, 142-148

T Jan 27: Functionalism and Anti-Functionalism – GD, pp. 67-96 (recommended: CI, chapter 2)
Th Jan 29: Class Formation – GD, pp. 97-134 (recommended: CI, chapter 5)

Weeks 4-6 – Class, Race/Ethnicity, and Gender-Based Stratification

T Feb 3: Class and Power – GD, pp. 149-167, plus one of chapters 22-24
Th Feb 5: Conceptualizing (and enacting) Race – GD, pp. 208-248

T Feb 10: Race and Ethnic Division – GD, pp. 249-300 (recommended: CI, chapter 3)
Ø     Midterm Exam Prep Questions handed out and discussed
Th Feb 12: Gendering Society – GD, pp. 303-346 (recommended: CI, chapter 6)

T Feb 17: Structuring Gender – GD, pp. 347-390
Th Feb 19: Midterm Exam Prep Session – no reading; come prepared with your questions on the exam

T Feb 24: Midterm Examination

Weeks 7-8 – Addressing the Meritocracy Thesis

Th Feb 26: “Intelligence” and Merit – MEI, pp. 33-86
Ø     Research Project assignment handed out and discussed

T Mar 2: Class and Economic Opportunity – MEI, pp. 89-136, 179-229
Th Mar 4: Addressing Inequality – MEI, pp. 269-295, 317-340

T/Th Mar 9/11 – No class – spring recess. Be safe, eh?

Weeks 9-10 – Development, Underdevelopment, and Global Inequality

T Mar 16: Income Gaps, Domestic and International – D&U, two essays each from Parts 1 and 2
Th Mar 18: Convergence, Divergence, and Culture – D&U, pp. 123-132, 183-208 + one other essay from Part 3 + two essays from Part 4

T Mar 23: Dependency, the State, and Inequality – D&U, pp. 277-304, 327-344, 357-406 + Wallerstein, “Focus on the World System After the Cold War,” Journal of Peace Research 30: 1, pp. 1-6 (available on course web site)
Th Mar 25: Dependency, the World System, and Inequality – D&U, pp. 345-356, 413-426, 435-456, 465-482 + Wallerstein, “Dependence in an Interdependent World: The Limited Possibilities of Transformation Within the Capitalist World Economy,” African Studies Review 17: 1, pp. 1-26 (available on course web site)

Weeks 11-13 – Gender and Global Economic Development

T Mar 30: Theories of Women, Gender, and Development – WGDR, chapters 2, 4, 8-9
Th Apr 1: Theories of Women, Nature, and Development – WGDR, chapters 3, 5-7, 10

T Apr 6: Households and Families – WGDR, three essays from Part 2
Ø     Final Exam Prep Questions handed out and discussed
Th Apr 8: Women in the Global Economy – WGDR, three essays from Part 3

T Apr 13: Women and Social-Structural Transformation – WGDR, four essays from Part 4
Th Apr 15: Women’s Social Change Organizations – WGDR, Part 5

Week 14 – Course Closure

T Apr 20: Final Exam Prep Session – no reading; come prepared with your questions on the exam
Th Apr 22: Final Examination during regular class meeting

T Apr 27, 8am to 10am: Research papers DUE at start of class; research presentations to be given during final exam session

 

Summing Up – Due Dates:

Every class session – Readings prepared

Every Tues – Group discussion questions submitted

T Feb 24 – Midterm Examination

Th Apr 22 – Final Examination

T Apr 27, 8am – Research papers and research presentations due

 

Paper and Exam Essay Evaluation Guidelines:

More information on these guidelines and examples of what I expect is available in the “How to Write a Schaffer Paper” handout, which is available on the course web site. These, though, are the overall guidelines in order of importance. The grading rubric, included as the last page of this syllabus, is designed to make clear how it is your work is being evaluated and how well you’ve succeeded in achieving the goals of each assignment.

1. Strength and clarity of response to the paper topic’s main question. Each paper assignment will ask you to respond directly to an argumentative question, and you should ensure that your paper contains a direct and clear response to this question.

2. Strength and cohesiveness of the argument. The papers you will write in this class are argument-based – it isn’t enough to deliver a simple one-sentence statement that answers the question. Instead, you need to take the time to show me how it is you came to that response – the thought process you went through, the references you drew from in order to figure out your position, and how you put everything together. In algebra, it was called “showing your steps”; here, it’s just good argumentation.

3. Accuracy in presentation and understanding of materials. While most of this course is devoted to the development of your own perspective on these thinkers and the world, there are some minimum “correct” and “incorrect” understandings of what the authors said. You need to be sure that you accurately represent what each author says, that you accurately and adequately cite any reference to the original text(s), and that you explain any unorthodox presentation of the authors’ works.

4. Presentation – spelling, grammar, tone, and the actual submitted paper. As it’s become ridiculously easy to ensure that your work is cleanly presented, you must ensure that your paper is spell- and grammar-checked prior to submitting it for evaluation. You should also endeavor to ensure that it’s proofread, either by you, a discussion group member, or someone else – and this proofreading should be both for the technical matters and for clarity of argument. Otherwize, you’re paper will appeer bad, even iff its the most briliant thing ever writen.

Deductions: The following are automatic deductions without appeal:

Also, note that I grade on a letter grade with +/- additions, so there should be no dallying around with the math.

In general, grades on papers indicate the following (and note that failing to meet these criteria will generally result in a failing grade):

I consider work that receives a grade below a C to be failing work. This would include work that is presented poorly, is not thought out well, and that includes no attempt to address the assigned question.

 

Course Evaluation Criteria:

I know that on occasion, it’s difficult to figure out what a professor expects of you in order to pass the course or to receive a particular grade. In order to assuage that concern, here is the set of expectations I have of you during this term; please note that they are not listed in order of importance:

I know that you have other responsibilities or interests you have to attend to, and I am sympathetic to the various pulls on your time. However, you should note that I take very seriously what you do in this course, and I expect that your continued presence in this course will mean that you too take that seriously. If you’re not interested in doing your best – or even better than you think your best might be – in the course, withdraw now. Presuming that you do take your work in here seriously, and you do your best to meet the expectations as listed above, you will pass the course. Failure to attend to your responsibilities in this course will result in your failure in this course.

 

Course Objectives:

At the end of this course, you will be able to:

·       Understand, discuss, and utilize the key theories of social stratification within and between societies as tools for sociological analysis;

·       Understand, discuss, and critique a variety of social stratification structures and processes, including those based on class, race/ethnicity, gender, and nation;

·       Understand, discuss, and analyze the key intersections of forms of stratification based on class, race/ethnicity, gender, and nation;

·       Pursue independent analytic research on a form of stratification of interest to you;

·       Critically evaluate arguments for and against the continued existence and/or elimination of stratification structures and processes;

·       Communicate your ideas and analyses to others verbally and in writing;

·       And utilize the analytic tools and substantive knowledge gained through these exercises to propose policies for eliminating these forms of stratification.